New policy to be adopted for PAISD
Published 6:06 pm Wednesday, April 25, 2018
By Lorenzo Salinas
It’s out with the old and in with the new for school board policies come Thursday.
The Port Arthur Independent School Board of Trustees will meet Thursday at the Memorial High School Commons Area on 3501 S/Sgt. Lucian Adams Drive. Policy changes, furniture purchases and a new calendar are just some of the items on the agenda.
The board will consider repealing all previously adopted policies and adopting new TASB-approved policies. TASB is the Texas Association of School Boards and it was their Policy Service that prepared new guidelines for Texas school districts last year.
“After the legislation change (at state), we looked at our policy and knew we needed an update,” Superintendent Mark Porterie said.
The list of policies to be adopted on Thursday’s agenda are all local ones.
“All those policies come from TASB and some from the board as well,” Porterie said. “Our policy is governed through TASB.”
Porterie said it was the school board’s desire to update everything pertaining to the new strictures.
“We asked TASB to come in and help us update our policy,” Porterie said. “We went through the policy this summer and reviewed each one with TASB.”
Porterie said the policies PAISD had in place prior were not all in line with current legislation, and so the decision to repeal the old and adopt the new was clear.
“Our last update was a while back. We were really overdue for a TASB update,” he said.
The new policies the board will consider adopting pertain to a wide range of subjects such as investment, accounting, inventory, auction purchases, school properties and disposal.
“We buy everything through federal money, so there’s a particular way to dispose of everything,” Porterie said.
The board will also consider buying furniture for several of the district’s schools like Adams, Travis and Houston Elementary as well as its Memorial Ninth Grade Academy campus.
“We’re getting our infrastructure back; we’re getting new furniture; we’re making updates after the hurricane,” Porterie said.
Additionally, the new PAISD calendar for 2018-19 will be set for approval. If approved, it will be the first district calendar utilizing the new District of Innovation exceptions for start date and end date.
The first day of school would be Aug. 15 and the last day would be May 24.
Porterie said both the faculty and student body would be happy to not have to attend school in June.
The board will meet at 5:30 p.m. but the open meeting will not begin until 7 p.m.
